HOMILY WEEK 11 05 – Year II
Priority and Perception:
Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga
(2 Kg 11:1-4, 9-18, 20; Ps 132; Mt 6:19-23)
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Two words summarize the gospel today: priority and perspective.
The two sentences expressing these two words are: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” and “The eye is the lamp of the body.” Basically, we are to make faith in God and love for others our main priority and view the world with the eyes of faith.
Regarding the word, “priority,” one of our missionary Oblates in Latin America, Paulo Elie, was visiting in Canada one year. I found myself apologizing to him for not staying more in touch. He replied simply by sharing a Portuguese saying: “What you spend your time and money on is what is important to you.” I felt convicted as I got his message – I didn’t value our relationship enough to spend time and money on it!
If our relationship with God is important, we will be willing to, precisely, spend time and even money to foster that relationship. That could involve giving to the Church and to the poor, but just as important is the need for us to spend time in prayer and worship. May I suggest Lectio Divina or contemplative prayer as an excellent way to do that. Reading a passage of scripture, meditating on that passage, praying with the passage, and finally, wasting time with the Lord in silent attentiveness to the Holy Spirit within, is a challenging but very mature way of growing in our intimate relationship with the Lord.
In 2018, I was among a ballroom full of encountered couples at the 50th anniversary of the Worldwide Marriage Encounter movement taking place in Lombard, Illinois. They were spending the weekend sharing their experience of growing in their relationship through dialogue with each other and trialoguing with their team priests and bishops. One couple, John and Barbara Bertrand, shared a story that touched all our hearts and revealed the depth of commitment to relationships, including giving time and money, this movement has called forth.
As a leadership couple with two young children, they were called upon to be away from home 35 weekends of a year. They wondered how they could do this when they received a phone call from another couple informing them that they were moving nearer to them to care for their family while they devoted themselves to Marriage Encounter!
The second comment about the eye being the lamp of the body brings to mind a story: Two brothers, one from the country and one from the city, were visiting in the city and walking on a street. Suddenly the country brother stopped and picked up a cricket. The brother from the city asked him how could he hear that sound of a cricket with all the street noise and traffic? They continued walking and suddenly a pedestrian, reaching into his pocket, dropped a coin. The brother from the city suddenly stopped and picked up the coin. His brother asked him how could he hear the sound of a coin with all the traffic and street noise?
We tend to notice, see and hear what we are used to noticing, hearing and seeing, and need a nudge to be open to the new. That comment by Jesus is meant to nudge us into seeing reality with the eyes of faith, and to be open to the newness Jesus came to bring.
The Medicine Wheel of Indigenous spirituality can help us here. In the direction of the East, that of vision, our senses take in all kinds of information and impressions. In the direction of the South, that of the intellect, our thoughts, perceptions, memory, understanding and decisions form our belief system. That in turn influences our emotions in the direction of the West. Finally, those emotions influence our actions and behaviour in the direction of the North.
It is important that we watch over what images we let into our minds and hearts, as they can have a great influence on us. Think of how advertising can influence our thoughts, emotions and finally our actions, as we sometimes find ourselves purchasing something we never intended to buy, and in the end, wonder why we did. It becomes more serious in the case of pornography which is really trying to see the face of God the wrong way. That energy, sacred in the safe container of marital commitment, becomes dangerous when splashed on a screen or printed page. It burns itself into our minds and can even alter the chemical make-up of the brain. The old notion of “custody of the eyes” comes into play here as very important and valuable even if our secular world considers it irrelevant.
Today is the memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-91). He is another example of someone who lived today’s gospel – who lived a life of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. He is patron saint of young men. Born a prince of the nobility in Lombardy, Aloysius began to practice prayer and penance at a young age, rejecting the materialistic values of his position and family. Against great resistance, in 1585 he gave up his possessions and his rights as the eldest son and joined the Jesuits, hoping to go to the missions. Instead, in 1591 the plague broke out in Rome, and Aloysius offered himself to serve the sick and dying in the hospital. He caught the plague and died three months later at just 23 years of age. He was canonized in 1726. As Jesus himself stated, there is no greater love than to lay one’s life down for others, and that is what Aloysius did.
The Eucharist is our anchor, a still point in a turning world, grounding us in God’s love, and our greatest act of fidelity or priority of the Church for over two thousand years.
May it empower us to make faith in God and love for others a priority in our lives, and to see life with the eyes of faith, so that we can spread the light of Christ more brightly in our world.
